In this patch we're introducing the first version of the offline Sandbox mode. It allows players to configure a single battle, a series of battles or an entire match (assuming you'd want to spend an entire day to play it) and select a battlescape environment (small, medium and large).

The match is hosted on your local server, and in time we are hoping to extend it to local coop or dedicated hosting. By changing options it is possible, for example, to play a single battle in a large environment (randomizing where the battle takes place), and that battle will take place around a space station on defense. It is also possible to play around with the various ship classes that the AI is allowed to spawn during these battle(s). More options as well as gameplay modifiers (ex.: all enemies are elites, all weapons are unlocked from start, etc..) will come in a future iteration.

We're also doing a lot of tweaks to the Support ship's gameplay & balance. We're introducing the concept of Resource crates, which the Support ship must collect on a regular basis to replenish its Resource points, which are consumed by the repair/rearm lasers. Picking up resource crates also replenishes a certain amount of repair/rearm drones, which come in a more limited amount than before. Their effect is now applied over time instead of being instant. We also reduced the Support ship's shield generation rate and amount of countermeasures (chaffs) to make it weaker to enemy small ships.

We are hoping that those changes will make the Support's gameplay more dynamic and less abusable than before, while preserving all its potential for saving friendly capital ships in battles.

An EMP torpedo has been added to the game and we've revamped all the warp effects (charging, field and exit) and got rid of the previous "tunnel" effect.

In the next major patch (ETA: winter holiday) we are planning to introduce the weapons loadout/groups management screen, iterate on the sandbox mode (more options and gameplay tweaks) and focus on our next visual polish pass. This will include decals, new planet environments, an update to the gas giant's visuals and some more UI polish, before focusing next year on our 1.0 release.

-Flavien Brebion

• The sandbox mode is now availabe to play from the main root menu
  
• Note 1: The sandbox mode runs a server locally which may affect performance, especially in massive battles
  
• 3 game modes are available: single battle, multi battles and full match
  
• single battle is pretty straightforward: you play a single battle, and whoever wins the battle (offense or defense) wins the 'match'
  
• multi battles plays a maximum of 3 battles, switching between offense and defense. Each battle is worth one victory point. The first team to 3 VP wins the match. It is a limited part of the full assault mode
  
• full match plays the full assault loop over an entire battlescape, from 8 to 32 battles
  
• the environment can be selected, from small (8 bases) to medium (16 bases) to large (32 bases). The selected game mode will play a randomized subset of all potential bases
  
• it is possible to enter a "seed" number for the generated battlescape. The same seed will generate the same battlescape (planets, moons and bases) every time. If you encounter any bug/issue related to the battlescape or bases layout you can communicate the seed to us to help us debug it
  
• various options are available: selecting the faction/team, the starting side (offense vs defense), the type of battles (space and/or land bases), and which ship classes the AI can spawn during the battles
  
• Note 2: trying to play a battle with Carriers only, or Support ships only, may not work as intended. Carriers are by design limited in amount by the AI, and Support ships do not have their AI implemented yet, so will not spawn
  
• Note 3: while it is possible to try playing a massive battle with Interceptors only, the local server's load may result in unpredictable performance. Disabling certain ship classes may result in some battles being unbalanced, or difficult to complete objectives (but, well, that's kind of the purpose of a sandbox mode, to play with various things, I suppose.. but just be warned..)
  
• we have plans to add more options and gameplay "modifiers" to the sandbox in the next iteration

Our feedback and internal tests clearly show that the Support ship, which we introduced right before summer, was easily abusable (infinite repairs/resupplies, or Supports repairing each others..). Its gameplay was also very passive, following the capital ships fleet. In this patch we're trying to make its gameplay more dynamic and require more effort from the Support player.

The Support ships now carry a limited amount of "Resource points" (displayed on the bottom-left central part of the HUD, right below countermeasures) which the repair/rearm lasers consume over time. The amount of repair/rearm drones was also drastically limited. All of those can be replenished by collecting "Resource crates" from the battlefield. Those crates spawn from destroyed capital ships (allies or enemies). This will force the Support ship to move away from the fleet and introduce some danger from times to times.

• Added resource points (used to repair/rearm targets). They can be replenished via dropped resource creates from destroyed capital ships during battles (or on an allied base's docking bay as usual)
  
• Resource crates are automatically collected by the Support ship on nearby (< 1Km) range like a tractor beam
  
• Repair/rearm drones now apply their effects over a duration of 15s (instead of instantly before)
  
• The "select nearest support" key (default: alt+H or menu entry in the Targetting radial menu) can now also select the nearest resource crate if flying on the Support ship
  
• Increased acceleration and speed of repair/rearm drones so that they can reach a far-away target a bit faster
  
• Decreased Support ship's shield regen rate by -25%
  
• Decreased Support ship's chaffs to 5 (from 25)
  
• Decreased Support ship's drone reserve to 8 (from 15), but increased the firing rate to 10s (from 30s)

• Warping-out speed is now capped to combat speed cap (ships will no longer retain their warp-entry speeds at exit). The target speed is set to the minimum warp entry's speed
  
• Added EMP torpedo launcher on the bomber and on the cruiser. EMP torpedoes deal 50% more damage compared to normal torpedoes, but their damage is pure energy and will only affect the target's shield
  
• It is no longer possible to fire a missile/torpedo on a friendly target with safety lock enabled (same for repair/rearm drones on enemies)
  
• Decoy missiles now have a reduced firing rate (1 decoy per 10s instead of 2s), generate less heat, and have a max lock distance reduced to 25 km (from 50 km)

• Ships that have a resupply ability can now see any friendly target's ammo ratio on their HUD target info by default
  
• Leaderboard panel now defaults to "Match Only" instead of showing "All" players
  
• Fixed hangar MFD being available on ships without a hangar and defaulting weapons groups to hangar mode
  
• Added an error notification message when trying to select an invalid squad group in hangar mode
  
• Switching audio devices now gets instantly applied (previously, you had to press the "apply" button to hear the change)
  
• HUD "Blood" effect on screen sides no longer shows up when HUD is turned off (F3)

• Fixed a bug that allowed a Support ship player to target itself through the tactical map, to launch a drone to repair/resupply itself
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Support ship's MFD layouts from being loaded from/saved to/reset in the general options menu
  
• Fixed a rare multithreading crash bug when switching audio devices

• Added new warp charge, field and exit effects. Removed the old purple "tunnel" warp effect
  
• Added extra log file errors when failing to open or create a local DB when launching the tutorials